Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions have been touching new highs every month. In February this year, the volume of UPI transaction reached a massive 171.4 million.

The father of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and its former chairman Nandan Nilekani said that the volume of UPI-based transactions will rise to one billion by December 2018.

In his views, digital platforms such as Paytm, PhonePe, Google, and WhatsApp are now coming up to UPI will help contribute to achieving $1 billion transaction mark.

Nilekani was speaking to a press conference organised by Kotak Mahindra Bank.

He also pointed out towards an interesting phenomenon unfolding in India unlike other countries.

“In Western economies, payments began with cards used for transactions at physical merchant outlets and then moved to the online space, without any foray into peer to peer (P2P) payments. However, in the UPI world it started with P2P. Then it has gone to person to online payments. Now it will go on to person to merchant payments. So the direction of UPI is opposite of the direction of cards.”

UPI 2.0 will further change the face of transactions when it will allow to make automated payments to cab aggregators based on the bill for each cab ride.

Since August 2016, when the payment interface was launched, it has been continuously growing. Between August 2016 and February 2018, the volume of UPI transactions has risen up to 171.4 million from 93,000.

UPI-based payments recorded 171.40 million transactions in February which was standing at 151.83 million in the previous month. As far as transaction value is concerned, February month saw a 22 per cent growth. The transacted value grew from Rs 15,571 crore in January to Rs 19,126 crore in February.

Along the side of UPI, overall digital transactions, including payments through credit and debit cards, the unified payments interface (UPI), unstructured supplementary service data (USSD), prepaid payment instruments (PPIs) and internet banking have also increased manifold.

Tausif Alam has more than seven years of experience in the media industry and has worked in both print and digital spaces. He began his career with Economic Times, where he worked for four years, and then switched to YourStory. Tausif is a straight-talker who believes in 'seedhi baat, no bakwaas', and aims to say things without mincing words.